SPANISH LAKE, MO — On December 18, 2011, 23-year-old Phoenix Coldon backed her SUV out of the driveway of her family’s home in Spanish Lake, Missouri – and vanished. She has not been seen since.

Hours later, her vehicle was reportedly found abandoned, but running, in East St. Louis. Her glasses, purse, shoes, and ID were all inside, but there was no sign of Coldon.

Almost seven years later, her parents, Goldia and Lawrence, are still searching for answers. They believe that her case was not a priority for police for a variety of reasons, including the fact that she is Black.

“If Phoenix had looked like Natalee Holloway, we would not have had this problem,” Goldia has said.

According to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Coldon was a junior fencing champion who regularly attended church.

But police also uncovered evidence that Coldon had not enrolled for the upcoming semester in college.

According to police, she had also been living with a secret boyfriend that her parents did not know about.

Coldon’s parents have made many attempts to find their daughter. They have posted appeals on social media and, according to The Huffington Post, even spoken to local sex workers after hearing a rumor that she could have been forced into the sex trade.

The family has also been subjected to heartbreaking hoaxes. At one point, a young woman called and pretended to be Coldon.

Coldon’s parents have fallen on hard times financially due to their search, but they say that they would pay any price to find answers about what really happened to their daughter.

“Let them take the house. I don’t care,” Goldia told the Post-Dispatch. “All I want to know is where Phoenix is.”